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Ropa Vieja is a delicious recipe of slow-cooked shredded beef with onions, peppers, and tomato sauce for an incredibly comforting meal. It originated in Spain and today is one of the national dishes of Cuba. Now, my first encounter with it was at the 90 Miles Cuban Cafe in Chicago where my wife and I immediately fell in love with this dish. Well, it's finally time to make it at And I think I can use a few techniques to pull out even more flavor. You are gonna love this recipe. Let's start with some prep. Sound good? Let's cook. I have two one pound flank steaks. Now the flank comes from the abdominal muscle on the cow right below the short loin and behind the plate. It's long, reddish purple in color, it's a flat cut and has a lot of grain to it, but it has wonderful flavors. Other great options are skirt steak, brisket, bavette, or chuck roast. What I'm going to do is simply slice these in half long ways and then slice them again right down the middle so I have four equal sized pieces. Make sure you do this because if you decide to cook it whole when you're pulling it apart the threads will be long and a little bit too chewy. I'm transferring them over to a sheet tray lined with a parchment paper you could use a platter plate or whatever and then I'm going to generously season both sides with coarse salt and fresh cracked black pepper. You know the rule when you season, season about a foot away from it so that you can cover as much surface area as possible ensuring every bite is delicious. So let's take the meat and the fat, head over to the cooktop, and I'm gonna be searing these in a very large rondeau. I wanna cover as much surface area as possible to ensure I get a beautiful sear on each side. If you don't have a large pan like this, just cook the steak in batches, no problem. Next, we are adding in two tablespoons of olive oil. You could use avocado oil as well. Then turn the heat on to high. Once the oil begins to lightly smoke, it's now time to sear. Then let's add the flank steaks right to that hot oil and I also like to mop up any extra salt and pepper that didn't make it on there because heck why not more flavor. Be sure to be about a half to one inch apart from one another to ensure that beautiful sear. We are going to cook these for in between three to four minutes. During that time let's knock out a little prep. I have one yellow onion. You could also use a white or a sweet. We're going to slice off the end, slice in half, remove that outside peel, then large dice it. Briefly set it to the side. Next, we are smashing six whole garlic cloves. This is just the right amount of time to head back over to our steak. Let's have a look. Beautifully golden brown. This is also known as the Maillard reaction, where amino acids and sugars reduce, giving it that gorgeous brown color. More importantly, though, that equals flavor and aroma. Let's continue to cook these for three to four minutes on that other side. After that amount of time, we're gonna come back, set them to the side on a plate. You can see the brown on both sides. Then in that rondeau, let's add our large diced yellow onions, turn the heat from high down to medium, give them a quick season of coarse salt, maybe just a quarter teaspoon or so to help draw out some moisture so they caramelize even more. And during this time, I'm going to scrape the bottom of the pan. That's known as fond, the goodness that is cooked on there, but I want to scrape it up while it's in that perfect caramelized stage. This just brings about so much more flavor to this dish. We are going to cook these for six to eight minutes and while doing it be sure to take in all the smells because they are wonderful. This makes the cooking process so much more enjoyable. Once they are beautifully browned after that amount of time we're going to add in our smashed garlic cloves and cook them just until fragrant which only takes in between 30 and 45 seconds. Now I'm deglazing with six cups of good beef stock. You could also use brodo or even water if that's all you have. Next, for some aromatics, I'm adding in 12 to 15 peppercorns, two bay leaves, then I'm going to season it up with coarse salt and taste it. Make sure it is delicious. It should be flavorful because those flavors are also going to help season up our steak even more. Speaking of steak, let's add them right back to the pot, and don't forget any juices that are on that plate as well. And cumin, another easy way to enhance the flavor of this is just by adding some carrots and celery. It'll make the braising liquid more flavorful and aromatic and in return infuse those things into the beef, making it that much more delicious. No, it's not classic, it is optional, but it is a practice of those fundamental basic cooking techniques that just make food tastier. So I just have one rib of celery and two carrots that are peeled and large diced, adding them in there. Then I'm going to place on the lid. We are going to cook it for two hours on low to medium heat. With about 30 minutes left in that cooking process, we're going to start on some prep. I have one yellow onion. You could use a sweet or a white. We're gonna slice off the end, slice it in half, remove that outside peel, and then thinly julienne it. These look great. Next, I have six garlic cloves, which I'm going to thinly slice. You could mince it. I just want to keep all the cuts as uniform as possible. And now I have one red and one green bell pepper. All we want to do is seed it by slicing the outside and the bottom, and then julienning both, just like the onion. Next, I have pimento stuffed green olives. We're going to thinly slice these, and the final amount should total one half cup. And for the last part of our mise en place, I'm going to add a 15-ounce can of San Marzano tomatoes right to my blender, and I'm going to roughly puree them. We want them to be smooth, but we also want the liquid to be a little bit thick in the end. This is perfect. And now for the sauce. I'm bringing my onions and fat over to my cooktop, along with a five-quart saucepan. You could also use a Rondo or Dutch oven if that's what you have. Let's add two tablespoons of olive oil. Turn the heat up to low-medium. We are first going to add in our julienne yellow onions. Give them a quick season of coarse salt, maybe a quarter teaspoon or so to help draw out some moisture, to help brown them. Let's first give them a quick stir, and then we're gonna come back every five to seven minutes to see where we're at. These are starting to look really good. And at this time, let's go have a look at our beef. Absolutely beautiful. They're tender and soft when I push on them. We are going to remove all the beef, set them to the side on a plate. Then we want to strain that braising liquid right through a chinois or a fine mesh strainer. You will get about two to two and a half cups. Reserve it because we're going to need it a little bit. And now to shred the steak, I'm going to be using two forks. You hold the meat with one fork and then using the prongs on the other fork, just pull it back and shred it until you get these beautiful long threads. Now, the word ropa vieja translates in Spanish as old clothes. Now, the rumor has it the name came from a man who was so poor, he shredded his clothes and simmered them. And while he was cooking, he prayed. Upon opening his eyes, there was meat and vegetables in his pot to feed his family with. I always love these old stories from these classical dishes just like this. In addition, you could also shred these apart using your hands. This all looks fantastic. We've got a lot of meat here. Set it to the side. Let's go back and have a look at our onions. They look beautiful. And at this stage, we're adding in our sliced garlic and just like before, cooking it until fragrant, which only takes 30 to 45 seconds. Now what I'm going to do is add in our bell peppers, give it a quick season of salt, maybe a quarter teaspoon, turn the heat from low-medium up to medium-high. And we're gonna saute these for three to four minutes or just until you start to see a little bit of brown on the bell peppers. Doesn't need to go any more than that. Next, I'm adding in one teaspoon of ground cumin, two teaspoons of dry oregano, two more bay leaves. Give it a quick stir to incorporate into the vegetables. Then I'm gonna deglaze with a half cup total of dry white wine, Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Grigio, any of those will work. We're going to cook the wine for about one minute while scraping all that fond off the bottom. And after that amount of time, it should be completely absorbed. Now let's add in our tomato puree. I was going to go with two thirds of it, and then I decided to go with all of it. I want a little bit saucier ropa vieja. Next, give it a quick season of coarse salt, about a half teaspoon. It's important to season every step of the process so that everything is delicious in the end. Now let's add in our shredded beef. Mix it until the ingredients are combined, and while this looks really good in the state, again, I want it to be a little saucier, so I'm adding in a cup and a half total of our leftover braising liquid. If you don't have any, a little bit of beef stock or even water will work. Next, I'm going to add a lid, and we're going to cook it to infuse those flavors for 20 minutes. So ropa vieja is fantastic by itself, but it's also really commonly served up with a side of white rice, Cuban black beans, and maduros. Now you can get all of these recipes at my website at billyparisi.com. In fact, every recipe I've ever done is on my website. Every single post has detailed information, how to make a head, how to reheat, how to store step-by-step images, You name it. And the recipe ingredient amounts are at the bottom of every post in the recipe card. And I've already converted them over to metric. All you got to do is hit that button. And in addition, if you want to scale the serving size, perhaps you're only serving two instead of four, put your cursor right over the serving amount and slide up or down and the ingredients will change along with it. It's a total game changer. All right, we're nearing the end. Let me show you how I finish this up. The ropa vieja is done, smells incredible, looks awesome. And what we're gonna do is finish it off. These are totally optional and necessarily aren't in the classic dish, but I do see it often. One tablespoon of finely minced fresh cilantro and those olives. Gently fold those ingredients together and oh, it smells so good. I cannot wait to try this. Also, don't forget about the white rice, the Cuban black beans and the maduros. And because this is my wife's favorite, I decided to give her a call and tell her what I was making. She didn't wanna wait till I got home. She came right up to the studio and guess who she brought along? One of my favorites. My daughter actually loved this. It's incredible the power of food to create such long lasting memories. I hope you get a chance to do the same. And look, I'm not one of those guys looking for the easy way out or any shortcuts. No, I am looking for flavor, which can require time and technique. And I'm 100% cool with that. The flavor in this is fantastic. I really think you're gonna dig it. And if you do like this, I have a good feeling you're gonna love my tacos al pastor, the marinade, the slow cook on the vertical spit. Oh, so good. I've got a recipe video. I'll see you on there.